The Interton Video Computer 4000 is a cartridge-based game console produced in 1978 in Germany. The unit was released in Germany, Great Britain, France, Spain, Austria, The Netherlands, and Australia. This console is the successor of the Interton Video 3001.

The VC4000 uses ROM cartridges to play games, and has two 12-button joysticks. It uses the Signetics 2636 Video Controller and a Signetics 2650A CPU running at 0.887MHz. The VC4000 is software compatible with the Audiosonic 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System and the Voltmace Database. Unfortunately different manufacturers of the VC4000 produced slightly different versions of the cartridges, and even though the software is compatible, sometimes the cartridges are not due to the different form-factor.

Game List

1. Car Races
2. Blackjack
3. Paddle Games
4. Tank Battle
5. Mathematics I
6. Mathematics II
7. Air/Sea Battle
8. Memory/Flag Capture
9. Intelligence I
10. Winter Sports
11. Hippodrome
12. Hunting
13. Chess
14. MotoCross
15. Intelligence II
16. Intelligence III
17. Circus
18. Boxing Match
19. Outer Space Combat
20. Melody/Simon
21. Intelligence IV/Reversi
22. Chess II
23. Pinball
24. Soccer
25. Bowling/Ninepins
26. Draughts
27. Golf
28. Cockpit
29. Metropolis/Hangman
30. Solitaire
31. Casino
32. Invaders
33. Super Invaders
34. Space Laser
35. Rodeo
36. Backgammon
37. Monstar Man
38. Hyperspace
39. Basketball
40. Super-Space

The Signetics 2650 was a 8-bit microprocessor produced by Signetics in 1975. It came in a 40-pin DIP package, had 15 address lines and could run at 1.2MHz.

The CPU was designed in 1972 by a team led by John Kessler of IBM, to compete with the minicomputers of that time. The CPU was produced using the NMOS process which used less power and produced less head than PMOS CPU designs. The base for the design was the 1130, which was a 16-bit minicomputer released in 1965.

The Signetics 2650 was one of the most advance CPUs of 1972. It easily outperformed the Intel 4004 and 8008. Due to production delays the CPU was not formally released until 1975, by which time other CPUs had been introduced that were designed from the ground up, rather than based on a mini-computer design. In 1975 Signetics was bought by the Dutch electronics company Philips.

The Signetics/Philips 2650 has four main general purpsoe registers (REG0..REG3) and three Alternate general purpose registers (REG1'..REG3'). It has one instruction addresss register, and a return address stack of 8 15-bit words. The Alternate registers could be switched between with a single instruction that controlled a bit in the status register called PSW. This allowed rapid switching of values during subroutines, interrupt handling and OS level task switching.

The 2636 Programmable Video Interface has 108 registers that control its audio and video output. Four other register provide the processor with information about video object collisions and provide input for the analog joystick data. Another 37 registers function as general purpose memory locations. The PVI also generates chip select signals for various functions on the game cartridge. It can send an interrupt request signal to the CPU.

The 2636 PVI is capable of generating a single square wave frequency which is then fed to other circuits that generate audio effects such as explosions, white noise or beeps.